Who’s Your Mama?

Scientists have been studying the incredibly well-preserved remains of a 47 million-year-old fossil of a lemur-like creature that may be part of the primate family that eventually ledto Homo sapiens.

The fossil, known as Ida, was discovered in the Messel Pitnear Darmstadt, Germany, in the 1980s.Scientists disagree about Ida’s place in the evolution of primates, but such an ancient and well-preserved fossil will likely fuel study and debate for decades to come.The BBC article states:

In the PLoS paper itself, the scientists do not actually claim the specimen represents a direct ancestor to us. But Dr Hurum believes that is exactly what Ida is….He told BBC News that the key to proving this lay in the detail of the foot. The shape of a bone in the foot called the talus looks “almost anthropoid”.